


Release

by crayonbreakygal



Category: Angel: the Series
Genre: Death, Drama, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-21 11:01:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17042495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crayonbreakygal/pseuds/crayonbreakygal
Summary: Wesley was way too desperate at times.  Takes place season four.





	Release

**Author's Note:**

> Wow. I found this in my LiveJournal. I never published this over here. It's 13 years old! Tells you how long I've been in fandom in general. Yikes. Enjoy!

Title: Release  
  
  
Wesley was desperate.  Desperate to make whatever he had done right.  Yes, they had all agreed to the decision to bring forth Angelus again, but frankly he had been out of options.  It was done.  Unfortunately, Cordelia had let him out from the cage that was meant to hold him.  Angelus had tricked them all, everyone believing that Angel had been restored.  Now he was on the loose.  Ideas about how to contain the evil vampire wouldn't stop racing around in his head.  The one thing that stopped them from restoring it had the loss of his soul from the safe.  Angel's soul had been stolen.  By whom, they didn't know.

Sighing, Wesley opened the door to the inner office, wanting to grab even more tomes to see if there was another way to track the vessel in which Angel's soul had been deposited.  Time was of the essence.  Whoever had been controlling The Beast wouldn't wait forever with his plans, whatever those plans might be.  Walking closer to the desk, Wesley noticed a note from Fred, telling everyone she had to go out for errands.  Errands could wait, he thought.  He and Faith needed to track Angelus, not go on any "errands".  Looking around, he couldn't locate any of the notes that he had made only hours before.  The book that they had garnered from Lilah had also disappeared.  Where on earth had Fred put them?  Maybe he had left them in his flat. That was the only explanation.

"Where is she?" Gunn called from the door.

"Who?  Oh, you mean Fred?  No idea.  Where are my notes?"

"You askin' me?"  Gunn turned to leave.

"Gunn?" Wesley started.

Gunn stopped in the doorway, turning to face his former best friend.  "Whatever it is, it can wait."

"We don't have much time.  I just wanted to say."  Wesley had started to apologize, but by the look on Gunn's face, it wouldn't be appreciated, and it might earn him another punch to the face.

"Don't.  Don't say it.  You know how I feel."

Indeed, he did.  They probably mirrored each other’s feelings right about then.  And Fred was in the center of that maelstrom.  Gunn left without another word. 

 

Wesley made the rounds to his other contacts, just to feel them out while Faith and Gunn patrolled.  There had been sightings of Angelus, but not in the last twelve hours.  By the time he arrived back at his flat, he was exhausted. 

As Wesley opened his door, he stared at the cold interior.  How long had it been since this place had seemed like a home?  Since before Connor, no doubt.  He had no reason to feel otherwise.  Slowly, he shucked his clothing and turned on the shower, not just to wash away the grime he had obtained fighting with Angelus, but to give his mind time to soak all that had happened in the last twenty-four hours.  Stepping around the damage Faith had caused, he stood under the hot steam.  Faith was back, but that was his doing.  She was in the game, willing to take on Angelus to bring back Angel.  She wouldn't stake him, unlike what the others would do.  Angel was too important to her.  And she was important to Angel.  Wesley was as unimportant to Angel now as he ever was.  He'd restore Angel's soul, take on whoever had been controlling the Beast, then leave them all be.  It was for the best.

After showering, he sat on his sofa, going over another book that might help.  Drifting off to sleep, he dreamt of death and destruction, entirely his fault of course.  Waking from the nightmare, he heard a light tap tap at his door.  Surely he hadn't slept that long or that deep.  Looking over at the clock, he had been under for quite a while.  Angelus had been missing for more than a day now, long enough to cause havoc in any situation.

As he started to open the door, something made him hesitate.  The hairs on the back of his neck stood up, but he brushed the thought aside.  Peeking through the hole in the door, he saw Fred pacing in the hallway.  As he wrenched the door open, he scowled at her intrusion.  Her eyes went wide with surprise, then she threw herself into his arms. Something she hadn't ever done before.  Fred was in his arms.

"I'm so sorry.  It's just I've been hiding, and I didn't know where else to go.  He might have followed me."

"Angelus?" Wesley inquired.

If the tears streaming down Fred's face was any indication, she had been through an ordeal.  "He almost got me.  If I hadn't been so good at hiding."

"Come on in," he said ushering her to the sofa.

Fred didn't stop clinging to him.  She was shivering by the time he had made it back to the sofa with hot tea to warm her.  "I'm so cold."

"Tell me what happened."

"I was gonna run some errands, thought I could track down another book to help us."

Wesley watched her, eyes filled with terror for her.  But she was strong.  She had survived Pylea by just her wits for five years.  Angelus shouldn't have caused her that much trouble.  "But you're here now."

"Yeah," she whispered, leaning into him.

He couldn't.  He shouldn't.  They had to find and cage Angelus before anyone else came to harm.  It was his duty, his mission.  Fred looked into his eyes and moved closer.  Her lips were still quite chilled, but he didn't mind.  She had pushed him away not a few days before.  Evidently, she had changed her mind.  Before he could put a word in, she flipped him, he ending up on the bottom.  Now this was something his mind couldn't fathom.  She wanted him.  Not exactly the best time, he thought.  But he would take what he could get.  Pulling him up, she devoured his lips until he saw stars.  This kiss was nothing like the almost chaste kiss that they had shared last.  It was almost like she was hungry, for him.

Before long, she had yanked off his clothes along with hers and sat straddling him on the sofa.  Oh, she was a vision.  He would remember this day for the rest of his life.  He would have never thought that she would be the aggressor, but she took control of their lovemaking, sinking down on him.  Moaning, she started to move above him.  He didn't want to move, thinking that she was just some kind of aberration of his mind.  But she was above him, making him the happiest man alive.   So he joined her, making her that much more vocal.  Right before he went over that edge, she sank down on him, squeezing her muscles while she kissed him with all her might.  Her lips moved down to his neck, sucking lightly as he groaned his release into her.  Then she bit him, none too gently.  He could feel her fangs rip into his flesh, feel the blood pump up and out of his body as she fed.

"Fred?" he feebly croaked out as he tried to push her away from him.  But her grip was tight, much like any vampire's strength would be.

His vision started to narrow, until he could only lie there and moan.  Angelus had turned her, was his conclusion.  He hadn't been there to save her.  He had let this happen to her.  In his last breath, all he could think about was how sorry he was.

"You were right," Fred said as she got up from her position on the now dying Wesley.  "Watchers do have rich blood."

"Told ya," Angelus answered from the doorway.

"Do I turn him, or do I snap his neck?"

Angelus laughed.  "Hey, might as well turn him.  Might make killing the rest of them, especially Faithy, much more interesting."

Fred made Wesley drink while she looked at Angelus with lust in her eyes.  "Yeehaw," she shouted as Angelus walked into the now dead man's apartment.  "This is gonna be fun."

 

Wesley awoke to a strange sensation.  It was too loud.  He could hear everything.  All the sounds hurt his ears.  And he was hungry, oh so very hungry.  Reaching to his neck, he felt the wound that Fred had caused.

"Oh, there ya are.  How'd ya feel?"

"Fred?" Seeing her, it all came back.  What she had done, what he was.

"Isn't she just the cutest thing you've ever seen?" Angelus pointed out.

Wesley turned to see Angelus sitting on a nearby chair, obviously waiting for Wesley to reawaken.  And Wesley smiled, because this was surely going to be great fun. 

"Angelus.  I assume this was all your planning?"

"Yep.  I want my friends with me.  Or dead.  Whichever happens.  So, you wanna party?"

Wesley got up, noticing that he indeed hadn't been dressed when he died.  Fred had seen to that.  Turning his head, he walked over to Angelus, watching as the vampire licked his lips like he had just seen a tasty morsel.   Angelus stood and pulled Wesley into a tongue-sucking kiss.

“Now who’s your daddy?” Angelus informed him.

"Actually, Fred happens to hold that position.  And party?  That would be marvelous.  But not with you," Wesley said as he pulled out a stake from his back and dusted Angelus.

Fred jumped back, staggering to the door.  Before she could open it, Wesley slammed her into it.

"Where do you think you're going, Winifred?"

"Hey, we can have some fun, can't we?"  She brushed her body up against his, making him harden immediately.

"Oh, yes.  Fun will be had.  Let's eat.  I'm quite famished.  I know this lovely place where they serve slayers for dinner."

  
 

“Hello, Faith. And how is my slayer today? Not talking. Well, you never were much of an intellectual. You were always a doer. Never a thinker, never a planner. Do you want to know what I have planned for you when I get out of here? First, I’ll rape you, and then cut your soft skin until you beg me to kill you. Then I’ll slit your throat and drain you until I come again. I might even keep you around as my play toy if you’re good enough.”  
  
Faith almost growled at the creature behind the bars. Yeah, she’d like to do him. The stake in her back pocket was itching for a fight.  
  
“Wes, you were always cold. But this? Cold doesn’t even begin to explain it.”  
  
Wesley sat in the cage in the basement of the Hyperion – the same cage that Angelus inhabited until he had been let out. Faith knew it was strong enough to hold Wesley. And she wouldn’t be stupid enough to open the door like Cordelia had.  
  
“If you would like to see how cold it is, why don’t you come join me?”  
  
Faith shut her eyes for an instant, just to take in the last week. Wesley broke her out of prison to cage Angelus, who they needed to defeat the Beast. Only Angelus had taken it on himself and stabbed the walking hunk of rock right after the creature beat the living shit out of her. She owed it to Angel, to help restore his soul. He had helped restore hers. Now all she could do was grieve for what might have been.  
  
While she was recuperating, and Wesley was researching, Fred had disappeared. Even though they had performed an anti-demon violence spell on the hotel, he had still figured out how to lure the young scientist out. In all the chaos, no one realized that Fred was missing until it was too late. By then, she had already risen and made her way over to Wesley’s apartment.   
  
Faith had found a naked Wesley pounding into Fred in the kitchen, dead body of a woman by their side. Since she had been oh, so quiet and they were busy grunting and groaning, they didn’t notice her. She saw what she had been dreading – two now healed fang marks on his neck. The paleness of him, plus her slayer senses told her the two were vampires now, not counting the evidence of that dead body lifelessly staring right back at her.  
  
Fred’s eyes widened when she saw the axe Faith had in her hands, making Fred pull Wesley away at the last moment. Then the bitch attacked her after pushing Wesley aside. The twig was stronger than she looked, because Faith ended up on the sidewalk after being thrown from the apartment window. When she ran back into apartment, Fred had scrammed, along with her new boyfriend.  
  
They had to prepare for the inevitable: prepare to find Angelus, to find Fred and to find Wesley and maybe have to stake them all. They had to be dealt with. And Faith was the dealer in this game of cards. Damn it, she hated fucking cards. Luck was never on her side.  
  
Only Fred had made a fatal mistake. She wanted to gloat for having turned Wesley. Gunn had to stake her ass for her time. Then the trap that they had set for good old Watcher Wesley had gone off like a charm. And here she thought that he had a big brain in there somewhere.  
  
Faith used herself as bait. It was the only way. Her neck smarted from the puncture wounds that Wesley had inflicted on her. Traveling down freakin’ Wesley’s memory lane was almost more than she could bear. Damn Lorne and his Orpheus idea. Her head still spun from watching Wesley failing time after time. The man never got a break.  
  
“Vampires were never my kick. B seemed to be the one to have a thing for the undead. I like my men warm and fuzzy.”  
  
Wesley rubbed his jaw thoughtfully and grinned. “Well, I seem to meet at least one of the criteria. From what I remember, your men were quite plentiful and not exactly known for their intelligence. I want to see how well you play with my (beat) intelligence,” Wesley purred, cocking that damn eyebrow suggestively.  
  
Getting up from his perch, he stalked up to the door, just like a big ole’ cat ready to pounce. Rubbing his long fingers up and down the bars, Faith wondered just how sick this vampire could actually get. From the few kills he had been able to make, she knew exactly how sick and depraved he had been.  
  
“Faith, I was your watcher. I like to watch. How about letting me watch? I’m sure Gunn would be more than willing.”  
  
Faith just scowled at him. He wasn’t going to get a rise out of her. He could just sit in that cage and rot for all she cared. But she did care, if just a little. Wesley had been trying before he died, to do the right thing. Angel was a key player in fighting for good. Now he was dust in the wind, she had found out from Wesley. She had a vampire watcher to deal with. Yay, me, she thought.  
  
Picking up a crossbow, she checked to see if it was loaded and ready to go. It was. Gunn was still thinking straight. He wasn’t in too good a shape after having to dust his girlfriend, but he still thought defense.  
  
“You know this is not your fault,” she started, maybe wanting to get some of the guilt off her chest.  
  
Guilt. She felt it down to her bones, but she’d never fess up to it, especially to an asshole vampire who had the memories of Wes.  
  
Wesley just laughed, doubling over with her so-called joke. “Fault? Oh, dear me. Faith, why on earth would I think this was my fault. I’ve been released. Released from a life of torment, a life of failure.”  
  
Know that, dumbass, she wanted to yell at him. She’d seen it all through his fucked-up skull. And had felt sorry. Sorry that he hadn’t been able to find some peace. She had found some peace for a short time, in prison.   
  
“No. No release, Wes. Just a demon inhabiting your body. Face it. Vampire Wesley may be a pretty scary thing, but I think that the human Wesley was even more so.”  
  
Wesley’s eyebrow went up with that statement. She didn’t know where that came from. Did the human Wesley scare her more? She didn’t want to think so. This thing in front of her tortured his victims, leaving her calling cards throughout the city like he was on a fucking treasure hunt. She had heard that Angelus could mete out some punishment, but this demon did some fucked up shit to the humans he killed. And he had only been vamped for a week.  
  
Her first calling card had been a body, hanging upside down, right outside the Hyperion. The dead body had her name etched into the stomach. The second and third had been arranged in a bed, looking like they were hot and heavy into the act, but both dead, both necks snapped.   
  
Human Wesley had a soul, where this thing standing before her didn’t. He had looked like he was on his way to psycho-land by the time she saw him in prison. How long would it have taken for him to kill someone who got in the way of his mission? Not long, she concluded.  
  
“Ah, the soul. Do you think that even if I had a soul, that it would stop me from killing? Probably not, if I had felt it was for the greater good. But now that I don’t have one, I couldn’t give a fuck about the greater good. Something I share with you. Oh, I seemed to have forgotten. You’re good now.”  
  
Man, he said fuck. And she was trying not to be evil, having to convince herself every minute of every day.  
  
“Never thought I’d hear those words coming out of your mouth. Watcher Wesley thought that I was a psycho.”  
  
“We’ll see how good you really are, now won’t we, Faithy.”  
  
Faith flinched at the title. She didn’t mean to flinch, but there it was. Angelus had called her that.  
  
“Why would you get off on torturing those people, Wes? For the pleasure? Cuz, that was Angelus’s MO.”  
  
“For the pleasure? You must be joking. I did it for the pain. Remember the pain, Faithy? All that you caused when you sliced into me? Did that give you pleasure, Faith?”  
  
Yes, she had caused him considerable pain back then. It made her feel something, anything, which was the goal at the time. But pleasure? She wouldn’t exactly call it that.   
  
“I’m not that girl,” she exclaimed.  
  
“I beg to differ. You take pleasure every time you plunge that stake into some vampire’s heart. I could see it in your eyes. I must have been, well, just a yummy treat for you.”  
  
Why did vampires have to taunt you, Faith thought? Did they think they’d get somewhere with it, get an advantage? He was never a ‘yummy treat’. He was convenient was all. A little revenge did help for the way he treated her in Sunnydale.   
  
“I play, I slay. It’s what I’m built for. Just as your undead heart was built to turn you to dust. Can’t run away from that.”  
  
“Did you get off on it?” he drawled out. “Did it get you all wet while writhing on my lap like some cheap whore while you dragged that glass across my chest? I’ll bet you did. I can remember it like it was yesterday. I must have imagined that scene a thousand times, made myself come a thousand times, imagining you, hard body pressed up to me, hurting me. Did you ever imagine that?”  
  
Sick fuck, Faith wanted to shout. How could anyone get off on torture? He was just fucking with her.   
  
“You crack me up, ya know? No biggie. So you get off on pain. Me? I like to separate my pain and pleasure.”  
  
Wesley’s body was intimately pressed up against the bars. She didn’t look down, but she guessed just talking to her was getting him excited. Another thing to atone for, she guessed.  
  
“How many times while I was your Watcher did you want me to turn you over my knee?”  
  
“Hey, I’m not the one about to get spanked around here. Your ass is in that cage, not mine.”  
  
Faith didn’t know why she kept verbally sparring with him. Maybe because it passed the time, maybe because she would actually get some answers to the enigma known as Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, if she weeded through all the bullshit, of course.  
  
“Would you like to spank me, Faith?” Wesley smirked.  
  
“Not my kink, Wes. I like it more straight up.”  
  
“I’ll be a good boy if you want. You could even tie me up.”  
  
Faith thought about it for one minute, then put it aside. Now wasn’t the time to think with her hormones. Yeah, it had been forever since anyone had touched her. But this was a vampire, for fuck’s sake. Not Wesley, her screwed up former watcher with a hero complex. This thing could rip her head off in one instant if she let her guard down. Maybe she should find Gunn, let off some of that aggression she had been feeling.  
  
“You think I’m that stupid? Not gonna happen.”  
  
“Didn’t you always wonder what was under all those suits?”  
  
Did she wonder? Hell, yes, but she wasn’t going to admit it to that bastard. He’d been so prissy and stuck up, so she didn’t carry it any further. But when she’d seen the brand, spanking (pun entirely intended) new Wesley that day in the prison, it did cross her mind. And it continued to cross her mind until she found that he had been turned. He had looked mighty delectable under that scruff and weather-worn exterior. He was entirely fuckable in her book. Too bad she never got to find out how good he was with those long fingers of his.  
  
“Watcher wuss. That’s all.”  
  
Wesley looked down at his torn shirt and grinned. Slowly he started to unbutton his shirt, looking her directly in the eyes while doing it. A challenge crossed his face. She’d just look her fill and tell him to fuck off.  
  
Pulling out the stake from her back pocket, she started to sharpen it to pass the time. She really didn’t want to look over and see a shirtless Wes. She’d probably see all his scars. Some of which she had put there. Glancing up, she saw that he had stopped his strip tease, waiting for her to watch.  
  
“Who watches the Watcher, Faith? Certainly, you can appreciate all the lovely artwork you subjected me to.”  
  
Artwork? Shit, he looked like a connect the dots puzzle. Big scar on his stomach, little slashes all over, scar on his shoulder, the slice to his throat. The only one she had ever kept was the one on her stomach. The one that Buffy had given her.  
  
She did notice how his jeans rode low on his hips, directing her eyes a little further downward. No scars there, she thought. She hadn’t had the time. Angel had stopped that party train just before she had showed him one more of the torture group. Just before she tried burning the shit out of him with that homemade flamethrower.  
  
Faith usually wanted some bulk to her men. Nice, sleek muscles, pumped up body, at least enough to hold her down for a few moments at a time. Wesley wasn’t exactly that. Why did he make her hot? Not having a guy between her legs for fucking whatever must be the answer.  
  
“I fucking tortured you, Wes. Not proud of the fact.”  
  
“I would assume that you would want to frame this for all eternity. Wait, it’s already been done for you. I will stay this way, forever. Unless you stake me first.”  
  
“I just might if you keep talking.”  
  
Turning back to her work, she took to glancing at him occasionally. He still stared at her intensely, blue eyes blazing a trail down her body.  
  
“Why haven’t you, Faith? Staked me, I mean? It must be killing you that I sit here in this cage, taking in the quite lovely view of your body.”  
  
“Look all you want, you freak. Ya ain’t getting any today, if ever.” Now he’d put her on the defensive with the compliment.  
  
“Faith, Faith. All I said that I wanted to do was watch. Last request for a doomed vampire.”  
  
“Watch me do what, Wes? Screw some other guy. Get myself off while you watch.”  
  
Wesley’s eyes lit up. Damn, the man must have been kinky when he was alive. She doubted that changed and probably was multiplied being a vamp.  
  
“I’ll bet you’re an expert at getting that lithe body of yours revved up.”  
  
If the room could get any hotter, it just did. And it really wasn’t what he was saying. It was the fact that the demon held his memories, had his body, his smoky, raspy voice. He played it to his best advantage. That lawyer bitch must have taught him a lot before she was sliced up. But turnabout was fair play.  
  
The video camera behind her was still blinking, sending all that she was saying and doing up to Gunn and the rest of them. She needed some privacy to say what she needed to say. Clicking the thing off, Faith slowly walked over to the cage, but not to the point that he would be able to touch her. She wasn’t that stupid.  
  
“I’ll bet you know how to get yourself revved up too. Am I right Wes? All those lonely nights, no girl around. I assume it is girls that you get off on. I always wondered back in Sunnydale which way you swung. So, which was it?”  
  
“I assure you Faith, that watching you train was all the encouragement I needed to go back to my flat and dream of you going down on me.”  
  
Faith laughed a little at that. “Could have asked me to join you.”  
  
Wesley looked a little stunned at her confession. My, my, she thought. There must be enough of Wesley’s memories there for him to remember the way they treated each other.  
  
“You weren’t my type. I liked mine a little less, well, insane. With the interesting things you could do with that knife of yours, I wanted to keep all my body parts intact.”  
  
Faith twirled her stake in her hand, just to show him who was boss. “I could do a little slice and dice right now? Huh? What’ll you say? Both of us might even get off on it.”  
  
“You would do that for me?” Wesley said, excited at the prospect.  
  
Fuck, what had she started? There was no way she was opening that door. Even if it was to cause him pain. He was too cunning, trying to get inside her head.  
  
“Uh, no. Can’t seem to work up the energy. Too busy recovering from getting myself messed up from your fucking head. Sorry.”  
  
Wesley put his hands on his hips. Faith didn’t know why she found that so sexy, but she did. The temperature in the room went up a few more degrees. She could see the muscles in his neck jump as he swallowed.   
  
“You do amaze me. So sorry for everything that you did to me. Want to make up for it all?”  
  
She would like to make it up to Wesley. But not this Wes. She didn’t owe this creature one damn thing.  
  
“Are you sure?” he purred out, voice getting softer.  
  
She remembered someone telling her about how vampires could mesmerize you with their voice or their eyes. Was Wes trying that trick now, because she really had the urge to make it the rest of the way inside that cage. Not gonna happen to her. Maybe she could mesmerize him, just to give it back to him good.  
  
“I think so,” Faith said as she pulled a chair to her, sitting down with her legs spread wide in front of her.  
  
Wesley looked straight down at her, like he could tell that she was fucking horny as hell. He probably could, she concluded, since that was the reason he was fucking with her head. His idea of getting some was on the mark. He knew his slayer. She slayed, now she wanted to play.  
  
Yeah, he could smell what she was experiencing, she realized, as she saw his nostrils flare.   
  
“What’s wrong, Wes?” she asked, drawing out his name.  
  
“You have such an intoxicating smell, my dear.”  
  
Oh, man. If he kept this up, she’d have to leave for a moment, if just to calm down. Or find a dark corner to take care of business. Why should he be affecting her? As he smiled at her state of arousal, it struck her why he was so right. She got off on the danger. Well, he was dangerous, to the extreme. And she had wanted to jump him the first chance she had when he was human. Only now, that element of danger had gone up exponentially.   
  
“Only for you,” slipped out from her mouth.  
  
“There. Now was that so hard to confess?”  
  
“No. Not at all. If the real Wes had lived, I’d have him all the way to happyland and back by now. Angel would be back, and Fred would be safe in the arms of Gunn.”  
  
“Angel, Angel. It’s always about that git. I dusted him. Or I dusted Angelus. I particularly didn’t like the look he gave me just before though. I wanted to be the one giving the punishment, not receiving. Only I know he would have never agreed to that. But you would, Faith. You’ve been a very bad girl, now haven’t you?”  
  
A jolt of lust shot through her. Wesley’s hands on her, roughly handling her, holding her down while he thrust into her time and time again. She needed to get out of there right then. Scraping the chair on the floor, she turned to leave.  
  
“I’ll make you a deal, Faith. Help me and I’ll help you.”  
  
She actually snickered out loud, because she knew exactly what he was talking about. “Deal? What makes you think that I would deal with you?”  
  
Wesley waved his oh, so long fingers around. “Probably a lot better than the ones you have.”  
  
He’d kill her before she’d come. Unless she had her own leverage. Why, oh, why was she even thinking of it? To pass the time? No, she didn’t think that was it. Did she have feelings for the man? Really didn’t have time to figure that out. It was just him in a cage, Angel gone, her reasoning all messed up from the whole ordeal.  
  
“Drop your pants,” she told him quietly.  
  
The zing of danger rushed through her veins. She wanted his cold hands on her. If this was thrall from a vampire, then she was screwed, both ways.  
  
He complied quickly. No underwear, she thought as she saw him standing there, no clothes to speak of. If she could fan herself, she would. This was not the watcher she tortured a few years before. He looked lickable.  
  
“Your pants?” he inquired.  
  
Faith slowly unzipped hers but left them over her hips. An advantage was an advantage. Walking over to his cage, she grabbed the hand that was holding the bar and pressed in, so he couldn’t move it. It must have hurt, but he didn’t let it show.  
  
“You hurt me, and I’ll castrate you. You do it right, and you get the toy surprise. Got it?”  
  
He shook his head yes. Had she lost her freakin’ mind? He was a vampire. Not a vampire with a soul. Just an evil being, willing to drain her of life in an instant.  
  
His hand lightly touched her stomach, making circles on her skin. She almost wanted to tell him to quit tickling her, but his hand traveled lower to tangle in her curls. She sucked in her breath and held onto his other hand tighter. She didn’t want to lose control of the situation, so she took his erection in her free hand and squeezed tightly. His gasp (oh, come on, you don’t breathe, she wanted to yell) was a surprise. He wasn’t really that cold, just room temperature. But he was hard and silky and as her hand slid up and down his shaft, she really imagined what it would be like to have him buried inside of her.  
  
His fingers worked their way down to her wetness, sinking in and making her groan. She had to keep her eyes open, just to make sure he didn’t try anything. He smiled and growled back at her hand action. Maybe she should have bet him who would come first. Looking into his deep blue eyes, she could actually imagine Wesley looking at her with love, or at least lust. It would never be. That Wes was gone, forever.  
  
Instead of one finger entering her slowly, two fingers thrust up into her, almost taking her to her knees. She tightened her grip on each body part she was now holding.  
  
“Faster,” he whispered.  
  
“More,” she panted.  
  
Another finger entered her as she sped up her hand. He had warmed up some because of her body heat and the tight friction she was causing. The three fingers thrust in and out of her, trying to keep rhythm with her tight jerks. She felt the orgasm building from her toes, spreading up and out of her like a million lights shattering at once. He conveniently chose to finish with her, groaning out her name like he fucking meant it.  
  
Slowly she brought her rapid heartbeat down to a more comfortable pace and let him go, pulling his fingers out quickly, before he could think of an advantage he might have. Pushing back, she zipped up her pants and tried to walk back to the chair in the middle of the room. Plopping down, she took the same stake out of her pocket and started her whittling. Wesley had righted himself, but still left his damn shirt off, having used it to clean himself off.  
  
A sound coming down the stairs startled her, making her raise the stake in defense.  
  
“I heard you needed a witch,” Willow called out.  
  
Wesley growled from his cage, vamping out when he saw Willow.  
  
“Yeah, he needs to have his inner Wes spanked. How about it?”  
  
“I think I can do that.”  
  
“Bitch, you think that you can perform a spell on me, but my soul back into me? When I get out of here, I will rip you limb from limb. I will hang your entrails from the tallest peak to show everyone that no one puts a spell on me,” Wesley ranted.  
  
He went on and on for a while, with Willow preparing for her re-ensouling spell. Willow did all her chanty parts, and at the end, shouted the special words that would shove a soul up his ass. Faith could tell when the soul hit, because Wesley crumpled over in pain, screaming at the top of his lungs. He rolled up into a ball, sobbing.  
  
“It’s done. He’s Soul Boy now. I’m sorry, about what happened. About Angel. Your friend Gunn told me what happened. I haven’t told Buffy yet.”  
  
But Faith didn’t want to think about Buffy or Angel or what anyone would tell anyone. Her eyes were riveted to the figure on the cold, stone floor of the cage. Faith couldn’t believe the same being lying on the floor was the same being that just revved her engines, nor was the person she met in Sunnydale all those years ago.  
  
“Wes?” she called out.  
  
He shook his head no and crawled away from her into the corner. Willow started to leave, climbing up the steps. “Oh, Faith. I revised the spell. No happy clause. Thought you’d want to know. I always thought that losing the soul if you were happy was just the stupidest thing in the world. He’s got it forever.”  
  
Oh, that must hurt, Faith thought. Wesley couldn’t lose his soul from getting a happy. He just had to atone for all the havoc he had caused over the last week. Walking over to his cage, she banged on the bars, trying to get his attention.  
  
“Wesley, I want to let you out, but I have to be sure.”  
  
“Go away. Go away. Don’t come back. Why didn’t you stake me?” he yelled back at her.  
  
“Because I couldn’t. We need you. There’s something still out there. We need you to help us fight it.”  
  
“Go. Away.”  
  
He had gone vamp face at her again, only this time she didn’t think he meant it. He was just messed up right then. He was back. She knew that this was Wesley. He would come around, that she was sure of.   
  
“It hurts,” he haltingly told her, shifting back to his human face.  
  
“It will, for a while. For a long, fucking while. You’ll get over it, or deal with it or whatever.”  
  
“Why did you, um, why?”  
  
Oh, now he wanted to know about her horniness for him. Great. And here she thought that he would be so screwed up about the killing.  
  
“I really don’t have any explanation.”  
  
“Don’t come near me, ever again. Don’t risk it. Don’t you understand?”  
  
“Well, since you’re not the Watcher of me anymore, I don’t think listening is gonna happen.”  
  
Faith unlocked the door and tentatively walked forward. She was pretty sure it was Wesley, now vampire Wesley with a soul.  
  
“I can’t live like this.”  
  
“One, you’re not alive. Two, you will. I fucking need you this time. Don’t wuss out on me now.”  
  
Wesley raised his head to look directly at her. She could see so much in his deep blue eyes. The regret, the failure, the loneliness. It mirrored her own too many times for her to count.  
  
“I’m not Angel,” he simply told her. “And it’s my fault that he’s not here.”  
  
“No, you’re Wesley, the condescending bastard who has always been up in my shit about something. You can’t lose the soul like Angel. No happiness clause. Willow fixed that. We need you. Simple as that. I need you.”  
  
“You need me?”  
  
Faith reached her hand down to help him up off the ground. She wanted to ignore his question. “You in the game? We need to bag some bad guys. Deal with all that happened later, much later.”  
  
“Yes, I suppose,” he murmured, not quite convinced that she was right.  
  
His hand reached over to stroke her cheek lightly. The coolness of his touch shook her a little. She’d never get used to him being this way. But she would never tell him that. He was too fucking important.  
  
“You need me?” he repeated.  
  
“Yeah,” she finally managed to get out. “Yeah, I need you.”


End file.
